Happiness
by teamweasley67
Summary: The war is over and You-Know-Who is dead. But many problems are still in the air. Can Harry and his friends find happiness in a world recovering from despair? Rated T, just in case. ;


**Author's Note:**

This is just my take on what could happen after the battle of Hogwarts. I don't really know if it's all that great- I have an amazing editor, handr4ever, but she'll say it's good no matter what! ;-) Make sure to check out her work! I hope you like this story! _Please Review! _Thanks a ton!

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Harry Potter or any of it's characters. They all belong to JK Rowling.

Rubbing his eyes blearily, Harry peered around, and was momentarily taken aback at what met his fuzzy gaze. Cots filled all possible walking space in the room, which was small to begin with. Snoring bodies were strewn across the poorly padded makeshift beds, and almost all of them were red-headed. As Harry struggled to remember his dream, the happenings of the past month came back to him in a rush. After the now-famous war at Hogwarts, the Weasleys and Harry had come back to a partially destroyed Burrow. Just thinking of the state it had been in forced Harry to repress a shudder. Since that day they had worked from dusk 'till dawn attempting to repair the worst of the damage. Luckily, The wreckage of the Weasley's home was not due all to irreversible dark magic, so there was still hope of restoring it to it's original rustic charm.

Everyone (Ron in particular) had insisted on Hermione joining them right away, but she felt the need to take the protective memory charms off of her parents and fill them in on what had happened over the past year. She promised that once she had crossed that off of the list, her #1 priority would be to come to the Burrow and help re-build. They understood completely, but ever since, Ron had been in a particularly grumpy mood.

"_Ron!"_ Harry whispered to the lump directly below him on the shared bunk bed. the accused Ron grunted but showed no further signs of hearing him. So doing what any good friend would do, Harry slipped out of his sleeping bag and nudged Ron lightly in the ear. Then a little harder. Then harder still. Finally, mumbling un-intelligible words, Ron swatted at Harry's toe and glared at him through sleepy eyes, which ruined the whole attempted 'accusing and angry' effect.

"This better be good. Because I _know_ you wouldn't wake me up for anything less important than if the Prime Minister walked through that door!" But Harry knew that there was someone else that Ron would consider far more interesting or important that the Prime Minister, and that if that certain bushy-haired girl were to be the one with the duty of waking him up, Ron would most likely be treating her with a lot more consideration and attentiveness. But Harry decided against sharing this with Ron, and instead changed the direction of the conversation to a subject in which both of them shared great interest- food.

"I just thought that maybe you would want to get something to eat! It _is_ after 10:30, and if we don't get out of here soon, my stomach is going to wake everyone up!"

"I think our whispering has already got that covered," said Ron, as several more silluhetted figures rose from their creaking cots and stretched. Ginny glanced in their general direction, looking rather cat-like as she arched her back in a morning stretch, doing so with surprising flexibility. She smiled in a satisfied way as it made a large cracking noise.

"Well, _I_ personally could go for some kippers and toast. What say you?" They all glanced around to hear the opinions of their fellow bunkmates. Percy placed his glasses at a rather professional angle and stated that he would prefer sausage and toast with marmalade, but not many made any acknowledgement towards him. Ginny and George were still suspicious of him, and chose not to engage in conversation with him unless absolutely necessary.

Mrs. Weasely must have heard them talking in the room over (the only other room that was available for sleeping headquarters), as she came bustling into the room not 20 seconds after this exchange of words. Her pink robe billowed behind her like a cape on a superhero as she came into the over-crowded room.

"Is everyone alright?" she inquired as her eyes fluttered around, making sure everyone was there and accounted for. Once she was satisfied with the number of people set before her, her tone changed rather quickly form worried and strained to strict and disapproving. "I've been up for _hours_, knitting and waiting for everyone to wake up! Why does it always seem to take so long for you all to _just get up?_" She then muttered something like, "_teenagers these days_", and stalked down the stairs, pausing only to look over her shoulder and say with much exhasperation, "Well, _are you coming to eat breakfast, or must I simply eat it all myself?_" before continuing her journey down the stairs to the newly-repaired kitchen. Before long, Celestina Warbeck's voice could be heard warbling along on the wireless over Mrs. Weasley's banging of pots and pans over the stove.

…_I'll tell you now,_

_And I told you before,_

_You don't need that love potion,_

_to make me yours._

_Ooh, a-oooh, a-oooh…_

Ron rolled his eyes but hefted himself up from his sagging bunk, and did a few sort of ballet-like leaps in order to menuever around the many people still in their beds. Ginny caught Harry's eye, and they both turned away to hide their grins from Ron, who was looking rather pleased with himself for successfully managing to not step on anyone's face. Charlie did a similar pattern of moves with about the same amount of grace, but Percy chose to sniffily ask people to move out of the way before moving in any direction. Soon everyone was out of the room except George, who lay face-down on his bed, good ear facing them.

"C'mon, he'll come on his own time," said Ginny, tugging a concerned Harry down the hall. Of course, this sight was nothing new in the Weasley household. Since the battle, George was scarcely seen anywhere other than the gardens, taking his pent-up anger out on the un-suspecting gnomes, and anyone who tried to persuade him to do otherwise got him to do little more than turn away and kick in the other direction. They _all_ were hurting about the loss of Fred, so no one really bothered him more than half-heartedly, as they knew a portion of what he was going through.

It seemed to Harry that such a nice, loving family shouldn't have to suffer so much hardship. What with money and all, the remodeling of the Burrow was going very slowly, and they had already lost so much. It helped to know that the outlook for the Wizarding World was bright, seeing as the darkest wizard of all time had been defeated, but many families were still suffering from major losses. Harry himself was still nursing wounds, many that had come as huge surprises. Tonks and Lupin _couldn't _be gone, not with baby Teddy just coming into the world. It was just simply too much for him to think about.

Trying desperately to change the channel in his mind, he thought of breakfast. The aroma of sizzling bacon and fresh blueberry pancakes drifted to what seemed to be every corner of the weather-beaten house, and all could hear Ron's stomach growl with eager anticipation.

"Sorry! _What?_ It's not my fault my stomach is loud! Don't give me that look, I'm hungry!" As Ginny and him grumbled and bickered their way to the breakfast table, Harry suddenly stopped in shock, staring down at the chair occupied by a familiar bushy-haired friend.

"Hermione! What are you doing here? I thought not to expect you until next Thursday! It's great to see you!" she smiled broadly back, her eyes tired but bright.

"'S great to see you as well! Yeah, I thought I'd come early, seeing as my mum and dad are doing so well. I must admit, they had me worried for awhile, but once they became re-acquainted with their surroundings, they remembered it all." She gave him a huge hug, then turned to greet the other inhabitants of the kitchen. After she'd said hello to everyone in turn, she finally looked to Ron, who had stood there gazing at her the whole time. Oblivious to the snickers from Charlie and Ginny, he had only eyes for her.

"Erm… Hullo Hermione. _Ahem_, uhh, how've you been?" He turned beet red, but did not look away. "I, uh, thought you weren't coming for some time?" It came out as a poorly worded question, but Hermione took no notice.

"Well, things change. I thought I'd come sooner than scheduled; I can never stay away for too long… I mean because It's like a second home here, not because of… um, you know…", she looked away quickly, scanning the room for something to talk about. "Mmm, looks good Mrs. Weasley! I've sure missed your cooking!" And with that, she hurried back to her seat and stuffed and pancake into her mouth so as not to be pulled into any further awkward conversations. Harry sighed knowingly, hiding his smile.

After a long, full day of cleaning, performing complicated spells, and getting at least 15 bites from the 'friendly' house gnomes during the weekly de-gnoming process, The cots seemed more like feather beds, but alas, sleep was yet to come. They all ate as quickly as humanly possible (Ginny could be seen giving curious onlookers furtive glances as she stealthily fed Arnold the Pygmy Puff some of her mashed potatoes) to further quicken the process of supper. For although they loved Mrs. Weasley's cooking, their eyes threatened to close for the night at any second, and there was much to talk about in the privacy of their shared rooms. They could not give in to sleep yet.

"Well, you children must _really_ be quite hungry after such hard work. Look at you Percy dear, you're positively famished!" Percy had just taken a particularly large hunk of roast beef and shoved it into his already full mouth. He looked up guiltily and shrugged, most un-Percy like. He had found a new job at the Department of Magical Law Inforcement, something he had been talking to Hermione about all day. She took a great interest in that field, seemingly the only one in the house, and he took advantage of that. After dinner he was to leave for his first shift, and he was really quite excited, explaining the stuffing of his face.

"Sorry mum, I've just got to leave in" he tapped his watch impatiently, "half'n hour, and I want to make a good impression is all." Of course this sounded more like, "Thorry mnnm, Ah gutht gatta levven 'avenour en Ah wunna meck uh 'prethen eth all," with all of the food caught in his throat, but luckily Hermione and Harry had learned how to figure out most of what was said from seven years of Ron's eating habits, so they interpreted the gist of it to the rest of the table.

"Alright dear, but don't choke! We all know you'll be great at your new job, _right everyone?_" She gave them all a look, and they all replied with muffled grunts of, "uh-huh", and, "suuurre".

"I best be off now. I'll say hello to father from all of you!" And with a swift peck on Mrs. Weasley's rosy cheek, Percy disapperated. After that, the rest of the party quickly dispersed. Harry and Ron to the Orchard (where the games of Weasley Quidditch were played), Hermione and Ginny to the room where they all slept, and Charlie got up to help Molly clean up the plates and such. As Harry handed Ron his Cleansweep, and grabbed the Firebolt for himself, he stole a glance over to the Kitchen window, where he could just see Ginny's long red hair disappear around a corner. His stomach gave a flip.

_Was she avoiding him?_ The thought came to mind before he could stop it. _Of course she wasn't! Why would she do that?_ It wasn't like they hadn't talked at all that summer. In fact, they spent lots of time together, but it seemed that he could never catch her alone. He had actually planned on talking with her after dinner, but that idea had crashed once Hermione had shown up. He was forced back to the present, where Ron was waving his freckled hand in front of Harry's dazed face. He followed Harry's gaze, but by then of course, the girls were around the corner and up the stairs. Ron shrugged, shouldered his broom, and proceeded to the orchard, figuring that Harry would come in his own time. After a minute or so, Harry came to, and hurried after his friend.

Meanwhile, Hermione and Ginny were having a conversation of their own...


End file.
